Are US-style “motorcycle mobs” coming to Canada?

After reports of a lawless group ride in Mississauga on the weekend which ended with two bikes destroyed in a crash, it’s looking like two-wheeled hooliganism that makes headlines in major US cities might be coming to Canada.

Several news outlets (CBC, Global, Toronto Star) are running stories of a pack of motorcyclists (supposedly 100 strong) that allegedly tore down Mississauga’s streets Sunday afternoon, breaking traffic laws and stunting. The video above seems to show some of this illegal activity. The Star article says two motorcycles were also involved in a collision with each other that ended up with both riders fleeing the scene, and one bike bursting into flame.

Over the years, we’ve seen several stories like this from the US, including this recent rampage in Chicago that ended up with a pickup running into motorcyclists to escape the pack of riders. Lawless activity by mobs of motorcyclists is definitely “a thing” in the States; it’s a cultural norm in some cities, with the most famous incident probably being the Hollywood Stuntz incident in 2013.

However, while motorcyclists have been speeding, pulling wheelies, and doing other stunts in Canada as long as we’ve had riders here, we haven’t seen this sort of en masse sportbike hooliganism in the Great White North — yet. It’s no surprise to see it in southern Ontario first, as you need a major urban centre to attract enough riders to pull this off.

Let’s hope it doesn’t become the norm. We already have enough trouble with government rules, regulations, taxation, and insurance costs in Canada. We do not need a few dozen sportbike riders ruining the fun for the rest of us, especially when that fun is already in a precarious position in so many jurisdictions.

28 thoughts on “Are US-style “motorcycle mobs” coming to Canada?”

“Ontario provincial police are investigating a wild night on Highway 401 that saw the passenger jump into the driver’s seat and take off after the original driver got into a confrontation with a group of motorcyclists. It began around 10:50 p.m. near the Dixie Road off-ramp. It appears the driver of a car was trying to get around a group of motorcyclists that was blocking the westbound lanes and weaving in and out of traffic. There was some kind of interaction between the driver and the group of motorcyclists and the car was damaged. All of the vehicles exited at Dixie, and the driver got out of her car. One of the motorcyclists may have punched her in the face. At that point, a male passenger jumped into the driver’s seat and took off, leaving the woman behind. He eventually flipped the car on Aerowood Drive and it burst into flames. Mississauga firefighters quickly knocked down the fire. The man and the woman had minor injuries. The OPP are asking any witnesses to come forward.”

I wonder if that mob was the original intent. I went on a group charity ride once and hooked up with a large group of bikes elsewhere for the 60km ride to the start point. The ride started fine but within 10 minutes of starting the group was doing 140 on the busy QEW and I thought “sod this” and dropped back. It was like there was an anonymous mob mentality that developed, like I can do whatever I want because there’s 20 guys around me all doing what they want.

Any goodwill towards motorcycles that may have been created in the GTA region has just been evaporated in a single afternoon. That’s a large number of bikers, certainly more than 100. Life just got harder for Everybody Else Riding thanks to these doucherockets.

With that number of bikes and the stunts that they were performing, this is amazing that there was only the one crash, I would have expected a few more, but this is bound to happen with such a large group and no organization ☹️

The Canadian Motorcycle Guide

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